BUY PRINT January 1909. Billiard champion Calvin Demarest in New York, seven years before his prematurely reported death. From his 1916 obituary, headlined "Calvin Demarest Dead -- Noted Billard Player Expires in Illinois Insane Asylum": CHICAGO, Feb. 22. Calvin S. Demarest, former amateur champion billiard player and later a professional, died at the Elgin Asylum for the Insane last night. Demarest suffered a nervous breakdown last June and attacked his wife with a knife. She was saved from serious injury by Demarest's mother. The billiardist was taken for treatment to a rest cure, but failed to improve and was removed to the asylum. As it turned out, Calvin was very much alive. In 1925, though, he died before his time. George Grantham Bain Collection. | Click image for Comments. | Home | Browse All Photos